@4beardolls – Did you see my question above? If you have not already ordered the QIR, probably worth doing, especially if she will test after Feb. My son’s Oct SAT QAS arrived as he was taking the Dec SAT, so completely worthless! But if you know she can test through the spring, then worth paying the $18 or $20 to see where she made mistakes.
@CT1417, Thanks - yes, we ordered the QAS for DD’s Dec ACT. I agree that it is a worthwhile $20 investment.
Although, I have a funny story about whether the $20 is worthy. When DS14 took his first ACT, I dutifully ordered the QAS. Then he incredibly got a 36! Needless to say that was his first and only ACT and he didn’t even look at the QAS!
Different kid DD17. no need to worry about “wasting” the $20.
@4beardolls … what is the QAS/QIR? I’ve never seen/heard those terms before (and this is my 3rd go around LOL)
Answer sheets with correct answers. For certain exam dates you can order them.
@moonpie – QAS is College Board’s Question & Answer Service. I do not know what QIR stands for, but it is ACT’s version of same. SAT takers only in this house, so I can better address that one.
CB will mail a blank test booklet and an answer sheet with student’s actual responses and correct responses. This service is available for Oct, Jan & May test dates. ACT also offers for three dates: maybe Dec & April and one other.
This differs from PSAT where the student’s own booklet with scribbled notes is mailed home. QAS sends a blank booklet.
Hope everybody had a nice New Year so far! Want to see if any of you use a paid counselor to help kids get to dream schools. We have always been do-it-yourselfer, doubting other people know more about your kids more than you. Recently, I started to think about it, when DD’s essays for summer programs need critique… Just wonder what you are doing in this regard…
We are also thinking about pIs counselors. Recently learned that most of son’s classmatea use consultants.
Happy New Year!
OMG, they will be finished (hopefully) with college applications a year from now! Time flies. It seems like they were little kids just a short while ago.
DS got his driver’s license over the break, but doesn’t really want to drive anywhere solo.
Our semester doesn’t end until January 22. His grades are mostly good, except that the 92% in IB Spanish is cutting it close not knowing what kind of semester final there will be and it’s 20% of the grade.
DS did better on the Dec SAT than the time he took it with a pounding headache, but didn’t quite break 2300. He did get an 800 in math, so that was good. He took a diagnostic ACT test, and it looks like that could be a better test for him. He’s doing some PrepScholar for that and is signed up for the February ACT.
Our school GC is pretty good for classes, testing, and such. We have a counselor in mind who is reported to be good with essay reviewing. We’ve talked with her a bit and she’s made some good recommendations about activities. She charges hourly, and is not that expensive. If DS gets a move on with his summer program applications, we may see if she has time to comment on those essays.
We intentionally did not go with a paid consultant/counselor/adviser. We felt like having some unpolished aspects to my S16’s essays reflected his personality. An essay I didn’t really care for resulted in an admittance to a top 10 school–they specifically mentioned his essay in a card they sent him. But the regional admissions officer is like 20 something years old so it went over well where a 50 year old probably wouldn’t have liked it as much. Our school does a reasonably good job of providing essay assistance as well though.
My children are all past the college application stage, but there is one thing I would like to mention to the parents of the high school class of 2017.
If you do not already know about these awards, by the time you would probably find out about them on this thread, it would be too late for your children. Hence, my mentioning these awards now.
Several colleges offer awards to high school juniors to be given out at high school award ceremonies in the spring. These awards usually come with a scholarship, if the award winner applies to and is accepted at that college.
Your high school has to register for the award program and notify the college of who they want the award presented to in the junior year, so the college can send an award certificate for presentation at the high school’s award ceremony.
The colleges are trying to entice the award winners (presumably students at the top of the class) to apply to their college. It is a marketing tool, but can be a win-win situation for the college and the student.
For example, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York offers the Rensselaer Medal to one junior at each high school that registers. If this student then applies and is accepted to RPI, the student is guaranteed an annual merit scholarship of at least $25,000.
Your high school has to register for this program now and then will be contacted in March for the name of the student to get the Rensselaer Medal:
http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/admission/freshman/rpimedal.html
Other similar awards are offered by the Rochester Institute of Technology (also in New York), the University of Rochester (New York), and Clarkson University (New York):
http://www.rit.edu/upub/pdfs/High_School_Awards
http://enrollment.rochester.edu/hsawards/
http://www.clarkson.edu/admissionS/undergrad_admissions/costs/scholarships/index.html
If anyone’s high school is not participating in these programs, you could bring them to the attention of you child’s guidance counselor. Over the years, I have read stories on CC where a student told their guidance counselor that they were very interested in one of the above colleges and then got the award. I do not know if expressing interest in a particular college can help the chances of getting the award from a particular college, but it certainly shouldn’t hurt.
In addition, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts) offers an annual merit scholarship of at least $20,000 to the valedictorian and salutatorian of a high school class:
https://www.wpi.edu/admissions/undergraduate/apply/merits.html
I hope this helps someone.
Thank you @dadinator.
Dadinator, thanks for the heads up. Are there good schools in other parts of the country that do this? How might one research more of these opportunities?
@BigPapiofthree - I stumbled upon these scholarship programs on the websites of the schools when I was helping my kids look for colleges.
My kids’ high school did not participate in any of these programs, but when I sent the links to the guidance counselor, she immediately signed up for all the programs.
There definitely was at least one other school that offered guaranteed merit scholarships to valedictorians, but right now I can not remember which school(s) that was or were.
One more day until this year’s PSAT scores are released. I am hoping for the best, but not holding my breath. S doesn’t always do as well on standardized tests as he thinks he does. 
Surprised no one is posting PSAT scores 
my S got 1480 and 220 SI. Any guess/prediction about CA cutoff?
Congratulations to your S! We live in the northeast, and they haven’t been posted yet. Did you receive an email notification that the scores were available?
Ours haven’t posted yet either (don’t know if S used a different email for this test!) There is a lot of discussion on this thread for the PSAT: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/1816872-psat-discussion-thread-2015.html#latest
@jmek15 - No email still. I checked @ 5:50 PM pacific on CB site.
Have you tried logging in to your college board online account. We did not get an email but the scores were in D’s online account
PSAT thread discussions were very intense last couple of weeks